Bay Bridge walk won’t be first but will be biggest

The new Bay Bridge‘s big bash in September won’t be the first chance for the general public to set foot on the Bay Area’s busiest bridge, as transportation officials had suggested, after all.

We were aware that a series of footraces were held across the bridge in the late 1980s and early 1990s since we participated in one of the runs, but those, of course, required an entry fee, a commitment to run (or at least walk fast) and were limited to a certain number of people.

However, to our surprise, and that of a collection of Bay Area transportation officials we queried, the public was allowed to walk onto the Bay Bridge on Nov. 17, 1989, the day before the just-repaired bridge was reopened to vehicles after the Loma Prieta earthquake caused a 250-ton section of it to collapse. News accounts said that about 13,000 people participated.

This time, participants will be required to sign up in advance to walk across the new east span as well as the west span at a specific time, said John Goodwin, a spokesman for the Bay Area Toll Authority, which is working with a private non-profit to coordinate a bridge celebration. About 15,000 people an hour — and a total of 125,000 — will be allowed to stroll across the span from east to west. They’ll have to find their own way home from San Francisco, probably via BART or a transbay bus.

The scheduling, and the limit, will contain the cost — the toll authority is proposing to spend $5.6 million for transportation, crowd control and to provide public amenities like porta potties and drinking water. It will also prevent the fiasco that occurred in 1987 when the Golden Gate Bridge celebrated its 50th anniversary with a bridge walk that drew 800,000 people. About 300,000 crowded onto the bridge, causing it to flatten.

“We want to avoid 1987,” Goodwin said.

Bridge walkers will catch buses at a big transit hub in downtown Oakland between the two downtown BART stations or two smaller centers outside the West Oakland and Lake Merritt stations.

A private group, the Bay Bridge Alliance, also hopes to have 10-kilometer and half-marathon runs, a bike ride, fireworks and possibly a concert on Treasure Island. They’re hoping to raise $4 million to $5 million to cover the costs.